BitGo lands $12M to beef up bitcoin safety

Bitcoin security service BitGo has secured $12 million to help protect users of the bitcoin digital currency from hackers and cyber criminals.

The Series A financing was led by Redpoint Ventures with a long list of participating investors: Bridgescale Partners, Radar Partners, Founders Fund, Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Corp., Liberty City Ventures, Crypto Currency Partners, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's A-GRade Investments, and several bitcoin industry executives and angel investors.

The Palo Alto company said Redpoint founding partner Jeff Brody and Radar Partners’ Stratton Sclavos — former CEO of Internet security firm Verisign — will join its board as part of the funding.

BitGo developed a security platform that protects users’ digital currency with a “2-of-3 key” multi-signature wallet requiring users to sign two of three keys to complete a transaction.

"We are still in the early innings of the bitcoin revolution," BitGo CEO and co-founder Will O'Briensaid in a statement. "BitGo's mission is to secure the world's bitcoin. By solving bitcoin's early security concerns for our customers and industry partners, BitGo is excited to help the bitcoin industry grow with what we believe will be a speed and scale comparable to the Internet itself."